The Fifty Years War, Israel and the Arabs

That sounds interesting and informative. Thanks, will check it out.

Surely not on I player if it’s Channel 4?

Is that the title of it (as in your heading?)

Have just looked it up, yes, it is I player.

Apologies if I sounded confused, it was with you mentioning Channel 4!

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll definitely watch it.

Calendargirl

Surely not on I player if it’s Channel 4?

Is that the title of it (as in your heading?)

Sorry BBC 4

Thanks for that Foxie, sounds interesting and will hopefully help me to understand more about what’s going on.

Thanks for this Foxie. I really need to know more about the history of this awful situation in Gaza.

I watched the 3rd part of this series last night, 1967 - 1982, the Israeli attack on Lebanon has so many parallels with the situation in Gaza. I should know and understand this history but I don't and I do wonder how many of us do? Anyway, really worth 50 mins of your time and it's giving me such a greater understanding of the complexity of politics in the Middle East and to what extent the US and Russia have been pulling the strings.

Thanks foxie, I will watch it, it I will bear in mind that the BBC have an agenda as has been clearly shown these last few weeks, in that they refuse to call Hamas a terrorist group, and they have misreported (in Hamas’s favour) two events and had to apologise later.

maddyone

Thanks foxie, I will watch it, it I will bear in mind that the BBC have an agenda as has been clearly shown these last few weeks, in that they refuse to call Hamas a terrorist group, and they have misreported (in Hamas’s favour) two events and had to apologise later.

Made by Norma Percy in 1998 so I doubt there's an agenda that has anything to do with today's BBC. She's an acclaimed documentary maker and most of the film is in interviews with key players of the time from all the countries and interest groups including King Hussein of Jordon, Yasser Arafat, Nixon, Kissinger, Israeli presidents, Moshe Dayan etc etc Absolutely fascinating.

Certainly no agenda attached to this series. There are witness accounts from both sides as well as balanced TV footage.

It’s so informative you are able to draw your own conclusions which help to form an understanding of the current conflict.

But maddy the bbc did correct the misinformation shortly afterwards. With so much information coming all the time sometimes these things happen.

Sadly I no longer trust the BBC to be impartial, not just on this issue either. I watch the BBC news every day but I find their coverage often biased. I’m very saddened by this.

maddyone it's really difficult to get unbiased information these days the media is always trying to hook us by giving us what we want to read or see. I subscribe to a number of newspapers on the left and on the right + an American one. I dodge in and out comparing what they say, what they think is important and I do a lot of my own research. I dislike the interviewing style of some of the BBC people but tbh I don't find them anywhere near as biased as most newspapers. I'm naturally on the left of centre and eg find some Telegraph reports make me want to scream but I also find the same with the Guardian . For me, the important thing is to try to be open minded, well informed and prepared to have long held views challenged. Works for me, anyway.

Thank you foxie48 for flagging up this series. I've just watched the first one and will continue to watch the others.

I posted this link on one of the other Israel/Palestine threads. It’s Michal Weitz’s account of reading her great grandfather Joseph’s diaries and I think the best example of how young Israelis are questioning the rights of settlement and expulsion of Palestinians that their parents and grandparents have accepted without question.

It’s very enlightening.

Storyville - Blue Box BBC4 available on iPlayer.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001q7qz

foxie48

maddyone it's really difficult to get unbiased information these days the media is always trying to hook us by giving us what we want to read or see. I subscribe to a number of newspapers on the left and on the right + an American one. I dodge in and out comparing what they say, what they think is important and I do a lot of my own research. I dislike the interviewing style of some of the BBC people but tbh I don't find them anywhere near as biased as most newspapers. I'm naturally on the left of centre and eg find some Telegraph reports make me want to scream but I also find the same with the Guardian . For me, the important thing is to try to be open minded, well informed and prepared to have long held views challenged. Works for me, anyway.

Have you tried including some European online newspapers too? I find they're much better at "foreign" news than most British or English language sources. Soem newspapers, such as "Deutsche Welle" have English language versions. I also read Israeli sources which aren't behind a paywall.

merlotgran

I posted this link on one of the other Israel/Palestine threads. It’s Michal Weitz’s account of reading her great grandfather Joseph’s diaries and I think the best example of how young Israelis are questioning the rights of settlement and expulsion of Palestinians that their parents and grandparents have accepted without question.

It’s very enlightening.

Storyville - Blue Box BBC4 available on iPlayer.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001q7qz

I've watched this documentary and it's a thought-provoking and refreshing change from the entrenched one-sidedness of so many comments.

If people don't have time to watch the whole film, this summary is worth reading:

businessdoceurope.com/hot-docs-interview-michal-weits-on-blue-box/

growstuff

foxie48

maddyone it's really difficult to get unbiased information these days the media is always trying to hook us by giving us what we want to read or see. I subscribe to a number of newspapers on the left and on the right + an American one. I dodge in and out comparing what they say, what they think is important and I do a lot of my own research. I dislike the interviewing style of some of the BBC people but tbh I don't find them anywhere near as biased as most newspapers. I'm naturally on the left of centre and eg find some Telegraph reports make me want to scream but I also find the same with the Guardian . For me, the important thing is to try to be open minded, well informed and prepared to have long held views challenged. Works for me, anyway.

Have you tried including some European online newspapers too? I find they're much better at "foreign" news than most British or English language sources. Soem newspapers, such as "Deutsche Welle" have English language versions. I also read Israeli sources which aren't behind a paywall.

Yes, I like the New European too. I don't think anyone can rely on one source of information these days but if I had to, it would still be the BBC. There was a poll a few months ago that asked people if they thought the BBC was biased and it was amusing to see how many thought it was biased to the left and how many thought it was biased to the right! I think there's a natural tendency to think something is biased if it doesn't accord with your own views which is why it's so necessary to read the stuff you disagree with as well as the stuff that you do.

As I said earlier, I watch the BBC every day. For the most part, I feel it’s a good source of news, but the reporting of the situation in Israel has been very poor in my opinion. To refuse to call Hamas a terrorist organisation, when our country, and many others have all accepted that it is so, is in my opinion not only biased, but also extremely worrying. I wonder who is in charge there and who has made this decision. Then two incidents inaccurately reported, in the favour of Hamas, is very poor reporting from our national news outlet. My Jewish friends in America have told us they are now refusing to watch the BBC because it lies! Harsh criticism indeed. I imagine they’re watching BBC World Service, I don’t think they could access our domestic service.
Anyway I agree with you that we need to access our news from a variety of sources, which we do. But I’m disappointed that the BBC service, that I used to be so proud of, is now regarded so poorly by people who are not in Britain.

Hamas are terrorists. Full stop. If the BBC supports them, what does that make them ? If they truly are supporters then they should not receive any public funding whatsoever.

As someone who doesn't sleep well I listen to a great deal of the world service at a time when it would be listened to in the US. I have not heard lies but I've heard quite a few reports from inside Gaza which have been pretty harrowing. I wonder if it's this that's upsetting people.

Only 50 years? I thought hostilities between Israel and the Arabs started in 1948 after the UN voted to partition Palestine and the Israelis declared their State after which it was attacked by three Arab states.

No vintagewine, reporting the bombing of a hospital inside Gaza as having been bombed by the Israelis when in actual fact it was bombed by Hamas because their bomb misfired is a lie! It was corrected later but initially it was a lie. It tells us that the BBC would rather believe what Hamas claimed than what the IDF said. Hamas would have known immediately that their bomb misfired and put out propaganda that the IDF bombed the hospital. People believe that lie unfortunately.
So no, what’s upsetting my friends from America is that the BBC have put out lies. Corrected later, but lies to start with, showing a clear bias for Hamas.